Woman donates 18,262 cat food tins to charity

Ella Christopher set herself the challenge when she turned 50

A "cat woman" who collected a tin of cat food for every day of her first 50 years of life has donated the tins to charity.
Six years ago Ella Christopher set herself the target of raising the equivalent of one tin for every day of her life, including leap years.
Ms Christopher from Boscombe, Dorset, has now donated all 18,262 tins to the Bournemouth branch of Cats Protection.
The charity worker from Boscombe in Dorset is known locally as "cat woman".
Ms Christopher, 56, who lives with her two rescue cats Cybil, five, and 12-year-old Wizzy, estimates that she has saved the charity about £10,000 in cat food. Next challenge
"It's one tin for every day of my life," she said.
"I did it instead of having birthday presents and Christmas presents because when you get older there's no point having loads of things.
"The next step will be to get 3,650 tins by the time I'm 60."
Ms Christopher, an advocate for Action For Children, hosted BBQs and social events and asked her friends to bring along tins of cat food to help.
"My neighbours call me the cat woman because they see all the cans going in and out," she said.
Frank Mitchell, Bournemouth co-ordinator for Cats Protection, said the charity feeds about 60 cats a day in its care and 150 ferals in the area.
"It's absolutely marvellous. It has saved this branch a lot of money," he said. "Certainly the ferals wouldn't last without it."